Shakeout and crushing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reducing bonded sand molds to a condition for reuse in a molding process. The apparatus consists of an orbitally vibrated chamber having a first upper shakeout deck, a second intermediate disintegration deck including a plurality of crushing balls, and a third deck which consists of a screen. Material not passing through the screen passes through a secondary disintegration deck where any remaining friable material is crushed.

United States Patent 1 Deve 1 1 SHAKEOUT AND CRUSHING APPARATUS [75! Inventor: Vagn Deve, East Washington Pa.

[73l Assignee: Combustion Engineering, Inc.,

Windsor, Conn n2 Filed: Apr. 5. 1974 2| App1.No.:458,37l

2] US. Cl. 241/77; 241/156; 241/D1G. l0 1] Int. Cl. i. BUZC 17/02 8] Field of Search H 241/69 76, 77, 78, 79, 241/84 84.1. 84.3. DIG. 10,152 R156 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 155L772 12/1895 King Z4l/DIG. 10

1 1 Aug. 5, 1975 Erismun i. Lil/DIG 1U Deve i. 241/77 Primary Exuminer-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Attorney .4116!!! or Flrm-Robert L. Olson {57} ABSTRACT A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reducing bonded sand molds to a condition for reuse in a mold ing process. The apparatus consists of an orhitally vibrated chamber having a first upper shakeout deck. a second intermediate disintegration deck including a plurality of crushing balls, and a third deck which consists of a screen. Material not passing through the screen passes through a secondary disintegration deck where any remaining friable material is crushed.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 37 B 37 3e u PATENTEU AUG 1975 SHEET BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The advent of automation in foundries in recent times. and the concern over depletion of natural resources, has caused many foundries to install equipment for recycling the sand used in molds. The mold including the casting therein is initially passed through a vibratory shakeout unit which breaks the metal casting loose, and reduces the sand mold into large lumps.

This material is then passed through apparatus where the castings and most of the tramp metal are removed, for example by magnetic means. The remaining material. consisting basically of lumps of sand and some small pieces of tramp metal, is crushed and classified. One type of apparatus presently used for crushing and classifying foundry sand is shown in my US. Pat. No. 3,762,656 which issued on Oct. 2, 1973. This patent shows a shakeout and crushing apparatus for foundry sand reclamation which has an orbitally vibrated chamber having an upper shakeout deck, an intermediate disintegration deck having a plurality of crushing balls thereon, and a lower screen deck. Material not passing through the screen was conveyed up to the second deck level by means of an elevator for further crushing actlOn.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The shakeout and crushing apparatus of the invention comprises an orbitally vibrated chamber having an upper shakeout deck, an intermediate crushing deck including a plurality ofcrushing balls, and a lower deck made of screening material. Material not passing through the screen drops to alower crushing deck using crushing balls to further reduce any remaining oversize particles. The two crushing decks have associ ated therewith openings for permitting tramp metal to be continuously and automatically removed from the apparatus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of the shakeout and crushing apparatus of the invention,

FIG. 2 is a view taken on lines 22 of FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of the apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Looking now to FIGS. 1 and 2, numeral depicts the shakeout and crushing apparatus in its entirety. Broken parts of sand molds and tramp metal are fed to the unit from hopper II. The apparatus consists of a base 12 on which a sloping-bottom housing 14 is supported by means of two pair of springs 16 and I8, one spring being located in each corner. Brackets 20 and 22 which are integral with housing 14 form the spring seats. A motor 24 is supported on base 12, and drives an eccentric weight pulley 30 by means of drive belt 28 and pulley 26. This orbital drive arrangement causes the housing 14 and all of the apparatus contained therein to vibrate at hundreds of cycles per minute, typically 900 RPM. A protective housing 32 encloses the vibratory drive arrangement.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the details of the apparatus contained in housing 14 is shown. In the upper portion is a horizontal shakeout deck 34 containing large openings 36 therein (2 to 3 inches in diameter). Intermediate the rows of openings 36 are vertical scalping bars Beneath the shakeout deck 34 is a disintegration or crushing deck 38. Crushing balls 45 coact with the deck 38 to further reduce the size of lumps of friable material passing through the openings in deck 34. Deck 38 is made up of a slotted upper plate 41, and a closely spaced slotted lower plate 42. Both of these sections have slots 43 therein, which slots are of the same size, being approximately one-half inch wide. By moving the lower plate 42 to the left or right for example by means oflever 44, the ultimate width of the slots through deck 38 can be made smaller. This may be desirable, depending on the bonding resin used in forming the sand molds. The crushing balls 45 are made of iron, and have a coating of polyurethane thereon to reduce the noise level. If a polyurethane coating is used on all of the crushing balls within the unit, the noise level can be reduced from approximately 120 decibels to approximately decibels.

The crushing balls 45, and also any pieces of tramp metal on deck 38, are in constant motion due to the orbital vibrations. In order to allow most of the larger pieces of tramp metal to be automatically removed, one sideof the housing 14 is provided with a slot 39 (FIGS. 2 and 3) positioned slightly above deck 38 covered with a door 39a. From time to time the door 39a is removed and as the pieces of tramp metal are ran domly bounced around, they will eventually encounter slot 39, and be removed from the unit. The height of the slot 39 is made small enough so that the crushing balls 45 cannot pass therethrough. For example, if the balls are 2 /2 inches in diameter, the slot may be two inches wide. In order to permit a more thorough re moval of tramp metal from above deck 38, a removable door 40 (see FIG. 3) is provided through which an operator can rake out the tramp metal.

The small lumps of friable material passing through the openings in deck 38 fall onto screen 46, which is positioned at a slight angle to the horizontal. The vibrating screen 46, which typically can be of twenty mesh, breaks up most of the remaining small lumps of friable material, allowing the properly sized grains of sand to pass through onto the housing bottom 47, which is also at an angle to the horizontal. The vibratory action causes the sand particles to gravitate to opening 48, for discharge from the unit. The larger particles which do not pass through the screen also gravitate to the right and fall onto a secondary crushing deck 50 through opening 49. Crushing balls 52, which are also iron with a polyurethane coating thereon, coact with the imperforate deck 50 to crush any friable parti cles. The material then passes through opening 54 with the sand particles falling through screen 55 to join the other sifted sand passing through discharge spout 56. Small metallic particles and incrushable sand lumps not reduced in size by crushing balls 52, flow out of the unit through opening 58.

The dust created during the operation is removed from housing 14 through duct 60, which is connected to suitable dust collection equipment and a vacuum source. The angled plate 62 prevents sand particles from being drawn into duct 60, and also directs the sand and other material falling from deck 38 to have some residence time on screen 46.

From the above, it can be seen that a compact, effi cient sand reclamation unit is provided in accordance with the invention. Tramp metal is automatically removed from the two crushing areas through openings 39 and 58, thereby substantially reducing the frequency of manual cleanout. Each successive stage of the crushing and classifying operation is located beneath the preceding one, so that gravity causes the material to move therethrough. This completely eliminates the need for any costly elevators for the unit,

What is claimed is:

1. A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reclamation of friable material comprising a base, a housing mounted on said base, means for imparting orbital vi bration to said housing, said housing containing a first upper porous deck, a second porous deck, and a third porous deck the openings in each deck being progressively smaller than the preceding one, the second deck being located beneath the first deck being located beneath the first deck, the third deck being located beneath the second deck, so that material passing through the openings in the first deck fall onto the second deck. and material passing through the second deck fall onto the third deck, a fourth deck positioned beneath and off to one side of the third deck in such a manner that material not passing through the third deck falls onto it, a plurality of crushing balls located above and sup ported by both the second and fourth decks to aid in the disintegration of the lumps of foundry sand, and discharge means for permitting removal of properly sized sand particles from both the third and fourth decks.

2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, including opening means in the housing above the second deck through which pieces of tramp metal can be automatically thrown by the bouncing action caused by the orbital vibration of the housing, the opening means being small enough so that the crushing balls cannot escape therethrough.

3. The apparatus set forth in claim 2, including opening means in the housing above the fourth deck through which pieces of tramp metal can be automatically discharged from the housing, the opening means being small enough so that the crushing balls cannot escape therethrough.

4. The apparatus set forth in claim 3, wherein the crushing balls are made of metal with a coating of polyurethane thereon, to reduce the noise level.

5. The apparatus set forth in claim 4, wherein the second deck is made up of closely adjacent upper and lower porous plates, the openings in the plates being substantially aligned, and the size of the ultimate openings through the second deck can be varied by moving one of the plates horizontally with respect to the other, thereby partially misaligning the openings in the two plates.

6. A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reclamation of friable materials comprising a base, a housing mounted on said base, means for imparting orbital vibration to said housing, said housing containing a first upper porous deck, a second porous deck, and a third porous deck, the openings in each deck being progressively smaller than the preceding one, the second deck being located beneath the first deck, the third deck being located beneath the second deck, so that material passing through the openings in the first deck fall onto the second deck, and material passing through the second deck fall onto the third deck, a fourth deck positioned beneath and off to one side of the third deck in such a manner that material not passing through the third deck falls onto it, a plurality of crushing balls located above and supported by the fourth deck to aid in the disintegration of the lumps of foundry sand, and discharge means for permitting removal of properly sized sand particles from both the third and fourth decks.

@55 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,897,910 Dated August 5 975 Inventor(s} M Vagn Deve It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line 15 add a. comma after "deck" (first occurrence) Column 3, lines 17 & l8, delete "being located beneath the first deck" Signed and Scaled this eleventh 0f May 1976 [SEAL] Arrest:

RUTH C. MASON C. MARSHALL DANN AIH'MHIK ()ffivz'r (nmmissirmvr ufIau-mx and Trademarks 

1. A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reclamation of friable material comprising a base, a housing mounted on said base, means for imparting orbital vibration to said housing, said housing containing a first upper porous deck, a second porous deck, and a third porous deck the openings in each deck being progressively smaller than the preceding one, the second deck being located beneath the first deck being located beneath the first deck, the third deck being located beneath the second deck, so that material passing through the openings in the first deck fall onto the second deck, and material passing through the second deck fall onto the third deck, a fourth deck positioned beneath and off to one side of the third deck in such a manner that material not passing through the third deck falls onto it, a plurality of crushing balls located above and supported by both the second and fourth decks to aid in the disintegration of the lumps of foundry sand, and discharge means for permitting removal of properly sized sand particles from both the third and fourth decks.
 2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, including opening means in the housing above the second deck through which pieces of tramp metal can be automatically thrown by the bouncing action caused by the orbital vibration of the housing, the opening means being small enough so that the crushing balls cannot escape therethrough.
 3. The apparatus set forth in claim 2, including opening means in the housing above the fourth deck through which pieces of tramp metal can be automatically discharged from the housing, the opening means being small enough so that the crushing balls cannot escape therethrough.
 4. The apparatus set forth in claim 3, wherein the crushing balls are made of metal with a coating of polyurethane thereon, to reduce the noise level.
 5. The apparatus set forth in claim 4, wherein the second deck is made up of closely adjacent upper and lower porous plates, the openings in the plates being substantially aligned, and the size of the ultimate openings through the second deck can be varied by moving one of the plates horizontally with respect to the other, thereby partially misaligning the openings in the two plates.
 6. A shakeout and crushing apparatus for reclamation of friable materials comprising a base, a housing mounted on said base, means for imparting orbital vibration to said housing, said housing containing a first upper porous deck, a second porous deck, and a third porous deck, the openings in each deck being progressively smaller than the preceding one, the second deck being located beneath the first deck, the third deck being located beneath the second deck, so that material passing through the openings in the first deck fall onto the second deck, and material passing through the second deck fall onto the third deck, a fourth deck positioned beneath and off to one side of the third deck in such a manner that material not passing through the third deck falls onto it, a plurality of crushing balls located above and supported by the fourth deck to aid in the disintegration of the lumps of foundry sand, and discharge means for permitting removal of properly sized sand particles from both the third and fourth decks. 